


Comfy

by radioactive_storm (storm_aurora)



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Domestic Fluff, Gen, Light Angst, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker has ADHD, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:29:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22686274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storm_aurora/pseuds/radioactive_storm
Summary: “Hey, kiddo,” Tony said as he opened the door, “wanna take a break…” He trailed off as he took in the interior of the room.Peter’s books and papers were all scattered across the floor. That didn’t surprise Tony; he knew the kid liked to spread out when he worked, and what seemed like a chaotic mess to him was organized enough for Peter to find everything he needed. What was surprising, though, was the fact that Peter himself was nowhere to be seen.Or, Peter disappears during a visit to the lake house, and Tony stresses.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 20
Kudos: 296
Collections: Irondad and his Iron kids





	Comfy

**Author's Note:**

> This idea came to me at around 3:00 this morning as I was trying to get to sleep and the muse just would not shut up until I wrote it. Enjoy.

“Hey, Pete! Wanna help me make some dinner?” Tony called up the stairs.

The kid had been up in his room working on homework the last Tony heard, so he figured it was a safe bet that he was still up there. Peter’s junior year coursework was a lot to manage, juggling 4 AP classes at once, so it wasn’t uncommon for him to have a lot of homework to do during his bimonthly weekend visits to the lake house.

“Pete?” Tony called again. He frowned. With his super hearing, it was hard for Peter to just not hear his name being called. Maybe he was just super absorbed in his work.

Tony headed upstairs and knocked on the door to Peter’s room. _Technically_ it was the second guest room, but he was the most frequent guest that the Potts-Stark family had, and half the décor in the room was things that Tony had bought specifically with Peter in mind. Even if he hadn’t thought that Peter would ever get to use it at the time, it had still brought Tony comfort in a nostalgic sort of way to give homage to Peter through the room’s decorations.

Yeah, Tony Stark was a sappy old man. Sue him.

“Hey, kiddo,” Tony said as he opened the door, “wanna take a break…” He trailed off as he took in the interior of the room.

Peter’s books and papers were all scattered across the floor. That didn’t surprise Tony; he knew the kid liked to spread out when he worked, and what seemed like a chaotic mess to him was organized enough for Peter to find everything he needed. What was surprising, though, was the fact that Peter himself was nowhere to be seen.

Peter didn’t usually close his bedroom door unless he was inside and looking for peace and quiet. Tony’s next thought was that he was in the adjoining bathroom, but the light appeared to be turned off. He opened the bathroom door just to be sure, but there was no spider-kid in sight.

So…this was a little weird. But it wasn’t like Peter had never wandered off in the middle of working on homework before. Maybe he’d gone down to the kitchen for a snack. Tony decided to head back down there to check.

As Tony approached the kitchen, he heard the squeak and slam of cabinet doors being opened and closed. “Pete?” he said. The sounds stopped immediately. When Tony poked his head into the kitchen, he saw exactly why.

“Morgan H. Stark, get down from there right this instant,” Tony said sternly. His adventurous little five-year-old was standing on the counter, hiding her face behind a cabinet as if that would protect her from being seen.

Morgan peeked out from behind the cabinet door. “Oh, hi, Daddy!” she said with a fake-innocent giggle.

“Hi, Morgan. Let’s get down now,” Tony said. He picked his wriggling daughter up off the counter and put her on the floor despite her squeals of protest.

“But I wasn’t doing anything wrong!” she said, pouting.

“You know very well that we don’t climb or stand on counters, little miss,” he replied.

“But Petey was sitting on the counter this morning!”

“Petey gets to sit on counters because he’s a big boy,” Tony said dismissively, suddenly reminded of why he had come into the kitchen in the first place. “Speaking of Petey, do you know where he is right now, Maguna?”

“Hm,” Morgan said, folding her arms and scrunching up her face in thought. Then her countenance relaxed, and she grinned. “Nope! Can I have a juice pop?”

Tony sighed. “Ask your mother,” he said, heading out of the kitchen. The more important question was, where was Peter?

“Pete?” Not in the living room.

“Peter?” Not in the dining room.

“Kid?” Not in the study.

For the sake of thoroughness, he decided to check the master bedroom, too. “Hey, Pep, have you seen Peter anywhere?”

Pepper glanced up at Tony from where she was lounging on their bed. “Last I heard, he was gonna try to knock out the last of his homework before dinner. You can’t find him?”

“No,” Tony shook his head. “I’ll keep looking.”

And he was absolutely _not_ starting to panic yet. Definitely not. He’d only been through one floor of the house; he still had the whole second floor to look through. Minus Peter’s room, and the guest bathroom, which made up about a third of the whole second floor and were the two most likely places he’d be. But, there was still the garage and the yard outside to consider. There was no need to panic. Peter hadn’t been suddenly turned to dust again while Tony wasn’t looking. That was physically impossible.

(Tony may or may not have double checked the floor in Peter’s room to make sure it didn’t look unnaturally dusty. Just for his own peace of mind.)

But Tony checked for Peter in the main guest bedroom, and in Morgan’s room, and the other upstairs bathroom, and there was still no sign of his kid. He glanced out Morgan’s window to see if he could see Peter playing outside from there. Nothing. There was only one place left that Tony hadn’t checked yet. Well, two, if he counted Gerald’s barn. But he would have to be really desperate if he was looking for Peter _there_.

So, taking deep breaths to keep his heartrate as steady as possible, Tony headed down to the garage. Maybe Peter had gotten bored with his homework and decided to tinker around in the garage lab. Tony wouldn’t mind that at all – he was always encouraging the kid to start some projects on his own, without Tony’s direction. He constantly had to reassure Peter that he didn’t mind him using the lab without Tony’s permission or guidance. Peter had done enough lab work with Tony to know how to use the equipment properly and keep himself safe while doing it. So Tony would be happy to see that Peter had been in the garage the whole time.

Except…when Tony opened the door into the garage and flicked the light switch on…the garage was empty. No Peter at a workstation; no Peter under a table; no Peter sleeping on the couch against the far wall. Peter wasn’t there. And _now_ Tony felt absolutely justified in worrying.

In fact, now he was desperate enough to check for Peter in Gerald’s barn. And, unfortunately, Peter hadn’t been overwhelmed by a sudden surge of compassion and decided to go give the alpaca a bath. The only living creature in the barn was that stupid alpaca.

As he sprinted back towards the house, Tony desperately wished that he hadn’t conceded to Pepper’s wish when they bought the lake house that he not install FRIDAY’s cameras everywhere inside it. Their security cameras only observed the garage and the outside of the cabin. Though, at least that footage could give them an idea of how long ago Peter had left the house…

“Alright,” Tony announced, standing in the doorway of the master bedroom. “I think I’ve earned the right to panic.”

Pepper blinked in confusion. “What?” Then she took in Tony’s expression and demeanor, and she understood immediately. “You still can’t find Peter?”

Tony nodded.

“Alright,” Pepper said, sliding out of bed and grabbing her silk robe. “Let’s take a look at the security footage.”

Tony and Pepper headed out to the garage. “FRI, pull up the security feed from outside. Now,” Tony demanded.

“What’s the magic word?”

Tony groaned and clenched his fingers into a tight fist. “FRI, _please_ pull up the security feed from outside.” FRIDAY’s manners module had been installed to reinforce good manners for Morgan, but right now manners were the last thing on Tony’s mind. He just wanted to find his oldest kid.

“Of course, boss.”

Eight holographic images of the outside of the cabin were displayed in the air, plus two of the inside of the garage. All were devoid of people except for the screen showing Pepper and Tony.

“Scrub through all the footage between lunch and now,” Tony commanded. “Flag any appearances of Peter Parker or any strange individuals.

FRIDAY took a few moments to go through all the footage, playing all the screens at twelve times normal speed. “One timestamp flagged. 12:32 PM,” she reported. All the screens were minimized except the one that had registered the timestamp flag, and the scene began to play automatically.

The scene in question was one that was familiar to Tony. He and Peter had come out here for an hour after lunch to play around with some circuit boards. At that point, Morgan had come running in to ask Peter to play hide and seek with her, and that was the last Tony had seen of Peter today.

What if that was the last Tony saw of Peter, ever?

It was an irrational leap to make. Tony knew that in the rational part of his mind. But the rational part of his mind never seemed to have any authority when his kids were concerned. Peter was missing, and Tony didn’t have any idea as to who, when, or how the kid had disappeared. He had no idea how to fix the problem. He’d lost the kid once, but he didn’t think his heart could survive losing him again.

“Tony. Tony, look at me. Breathe.” That was Pepper. Tony could listen to Pepper. He locked eyes with his wife, and the rest of the world suddenly jumped sharply back into view. Pepper. A worktable behind her. A screwdriver on the worktable. FRIDAY’s holographic screen projection, frozen on him, alone in the lab. Alone. Tony was alone, and he’d always been alone, and he would always be–

“Tony,” Pepper repeated, and Tony’s eyes jumped back to her. That’s right – he wasn’t alone. Pepper was here, too. Pepper would help him find Peter.

“We have to find him, Pep,” Tony whispered breathlessly. He was suddenly aware of the fact that he was breathing way too fast, and he started trying to get his breathing under control.

“We will, Tony,” Pepper said assertively, and Tony felt himself relax just the tiniest bit. He trusted Pepper. If Pepper said it, it would have to be true.

“He and Morgan were playing hide and seek, right? Maybe he found a hiding spot so good that Morgan couldn’t find him, and he’s still hiding there,” Pepper suggested.

The corners of Tony’s mouth twitched up into a faint smile. “Peter _is_ very good at hiding.”

“Then let’s check the house again,” Pepper said. “I’m sure you just missed him the first time.”

While Pepper began her thorough search downstairs, Tony’s gut told him to check back in Peter’s room. The kid never left his door closed if he wasn’t inside.

He opened the door and scanned the room again. Everything was as it had been the last time Tony checked it: bed unmade, papers on the floor, books strewn about. “You could really stand to clean up after yourself once in a while, kid,” Tony murmured, picking up a couple of textbooks from the floor and stacking them on the edge of Peter’s desk.

Now that he thought about it, all the textbooks on the floor were closed. So it didn’t seem that Peter had gotten taken abruptly in the middle of working on homework – he’d either finished it or taken a break. Maybe he had decided to take a nap somewhere a little less conventional.

Tony grabbed the comforter from Peter’s bed that was half on the bed, half falling off the side. As he pulled it off, something tumbled out and landed on the ground with a loud thud. He placed the comforter back on Peter’s bed and picked up the object. A textbook for U.S. History. What had Peter been doing, reading his textbook in bed? That sounded like a pretty lousy bedtime story.

“Mizzer Stark…? Why’re you goin’ through my stuff?”

Tony jumped and whirled around, textbook still in hand. That was definitely Peter’s voice. But the kid wasn’t standing in the doorway, so where–?

“Up here,” the kid called lazily.

The voice was coming from the right of the doorway. Tony looked there – a bookshelf. Then he looked up.

“Oh my God, kid,” Tony breathed. Peter’s textbook fell out of his hands without any conscious choice on Tony’s part, and he had to sit down on the edge of Peter’s bed to handle the force of the sheer relief that washed over him. “What the hell are you doing on top of your bookshelf?”

Peter blinked sleepily at him. “I _was_ taking a nap. Then you woke me up.”

“Why were you taking a nap _on top of your bookshelf_?”

“Found this spot playing hide and seek with Morgan. It’s comfy. So I climbed back up to take a nap when I finished my homework.”

Tony sighed. Oh, the joys of having a kid with spider powers. “Well, come on down from there.”

“I don’t wanna,” Peter moaned. “It’s comfy up here.”

“Well, this is what you get for scaring your old man. Come on.”

Peter sighed and rolled over on his back. Then he stuck his hands and feet on the ceiling and crawled over the center of the room. Finally, he dropped from the ceiling and flipped over in midair like a cat to land on his feet.

“I scared you?” he asked.

Tony shrugged self-consciously. “I didn’t know where you were. I got a little worried.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Stark. I didn’t mean to worry you,” Peter said earnestly.

Tony shook his head. “I know you didn’t, kiddo. C’mere.”

He spread his arms wide and let Peter fall into them, wrapping his arms around the kid in a tight hug. Peter wrapped his arms around Tony in return and nuzzled his face into the crook of Tony’s neck. Tony rested his cheek on Peter’s head. They stayed like that for a minute, Tony relishing in the feeling of having Peter in his arms and letting the steady rise and fall of Peter’s chest soothe the last anxious nerves in his body.

Finally, Tony let go of Peter and stood up. “So, Pete. Wanna help me make some dinner?”

**Author's Note:**

> This was based off of something that happened to my mom a long time ago; she spent like half an hour searching the house for her cat and it turned out he had been lying on top of her china cabinet the whole time :)


End file.
